North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State To Add Softball Program in 2003-2004
4/24/2002 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
April 24, 2002
Raleigh, N.C.--NC State athletics director Lee Fowler has announced that NC State University will add fast-pitch women's softball as its 23rd varsity sport with competition beginning in the spring of 2004. Fowler plans to have a head coach and an assistant coach in place for the 2002-03 academic year, and field a team in ACC competition in 2003-04.
Plans for a new softball facility are being developed and are in the planning stages There will be a national search for the coaching staff and a search committee be formed in the next several weeks.
Currently, five ACC schools (Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia) sponsor fast-pitch softball, giving NC State a conference identity and a conference competition schedule. With the addition of NC State, the ACC will qualify for an automatic bid to the NCAA Softball Championships (The NCAA requires six member schools to offer eligibility for an automatic bid).
NC State fielded a women's slow-pitch softball squad from 1975-83. However, when the Wolfpack changed its national women's athletics association membership from the AIAW to the NCAA, the NCAA did not offer slow-pitch softball championships. As a result, NC State dropped the program at the end of the 1982-83 season.
Today, fast-pitch softball is played by most high schools in North Carolina, and the NCHSAA offers fast-pitch state championships in every division. In 2000-01, the NCHSAA accounted for 334 girls' fast-pitch softball teams, accounting for approximately 8,000 participants.
The last sport to be added at NC State was women's golf in 2000-01. The women's golf team had made great strides in only its second season back in action, including three tournament wins this season and a recent third place finish at the ACC Championships.
